President Obama, Speech On The Economy

Transcripts - President Obama, Speech On The Economy

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The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release December 06, 2011 Remarks by the President on the Economy in Osawatomie, Kansas Osawatomie High School Osawatomie, Kansas12:59 P.M. CSTTHE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Please, please have a seat. Thank you so much. Thank you.Good afternoon, everybody.AUDIENCE: Good afternoon.THE PRESIDENT: Well, I want to start by thanking a few folks who’ve joined us today. We’ve got the mayorof Osawatomie, Phil Dudley is here. (Applause.) We have your superintendent Gary French in the house.(Applause.) And we have the principal of Osawatomie High, Doug Chisam. (Applause.) And I have broughtyour former governor, who is doing now an outstanding job as Secretary of Health and Human Services --Kathleen Sebelius is in the house. (Applause.) We love Kathleen.Well, it is great to be back in the state of Tex -- (laughter) -- state of Kansas. I was giving Bill Self a hardtime, he was here a while back. As many of you know, I have roots here. (Applause.) I’m sure you’re allfamiliar with the Obamas of Osawatomie. (Laughter.) Actually, I like to say that I got my name from myfather, but I got my accent -- and my values -- from my mother. (Applause.) She was born in Wichita.(Applause.) Her mother grew up in Augusta. Her father was from El Dorado. So my Kansas roots run deep.My grandparents served during World War II. He was a soldier in Patton’s Army; she was a worker on abomber assembly line. And together, they shared the optimism of a nation that triumphed over the GreatDepression and over fascism. They believed in an America where hard work paid off, and responsibility wasrewarded, and anyone could make it if they tried -- no matter who you were, no matter where you camefrom, no matter how you started out. (Applause.)And these values gave rise to the largest middle class and the strongest economy that the world has everknown. It was here in America that the most productive workers, the most innovative companies turned outthe best products on Earth. And you know what? Every American shared in that pride and in that success --from those in the executive suites to those in middle management to those on the factory floor. (Applause.)So you could have some confidence that if you gave it your all, you’d take enough home to raise your familyand send your kids to school and have your health care covered, put a little away for retirement.Today, we’re still home to the world’s most productive workers. We’re still home to the world’s mostinnovative companies. But for most Americans, the basic bargain that made this country great has eroded.Long before the recession hit, hard work stopped paying off for too many people. Fewer and fewer of thefolks who contributed to the success of our economy actually benefited from that success. Those at the verytop grew wealthier from their incomes and their investments -- wealthier than ever before. But everybodyelse struggled with costs that were growing and paychecks that weren’t -- and too many families foundthemselves racking up more and more debt just to keep up.Now, for many years, credit cards and home equity loans papered over this harsh reality. But in 2008, thehouse of cards collapsed. We all know the story by now: Mortgages sold to people who couldn’t afford them,or even sometimes understand them. Banks and investors allowed to keep packaging the risk and selling itoff. Huge bets -- and huge bonuses -- made with other people’s money on the line. Regulators who weresupposed to warn us about the dangers of all this, but looked the other way or didn’t have the authority tolook at all.

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It was wrong. It combined the breathtaking greed of a few with irresponsibility all across the system. And itplunged our economy and the world into a crisis from which we’re still fighting to recover. It claimed the jobsand the homes and the basic security of millions of people -- innocent, hardworking Americans who had mettheir responsibilities but were still left holding the bag.And ever since, there’s been a raging debate over the best way to restore growth and prosperity, restorebalance, restore fairness. Throughout the country, it’s sparked protests and political movements -- from thetea party to the people who’ve been occupying the streets of New York and other cities. It’s left Washingtonin a near-constant state of gridlock. It’s been the topic of heated and sometimes colorful discussion amongthe men and women running for president. (Laughter.)But, Osawatomie, this is not just another political debate. This is the defining issue of our time. This is amake-or-break moment for the middle class, and for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class.Because what’s at stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise afamily, build a modest savings, own a home, secure their retirement.Now, in the midst of this debate, there are some who seem to be suffering from a kind of collective amnesia.After all that’s happened, after the worst economic crisis, the worst financial crisis since the GreatDepression, they want to return to the same practices that got us into this mess. In fact, they want to goback to the same policies that stacked the deck against middle-class Americans for way too many years.And their philosophy is simple: We are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and play bytheir own rules.I am here to say they are wrong. (Applause.) I’m here in Kansas to reaffirm my deep conviction that we’regreater together than we are on our own. I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fairshot, when everyone does their fair share, when everyone plays by the same rules. (Applause.) These aren’tDemocratic values or Republican values. These aren’t 1 percent values or 99 percent values. They’reAmerican values. And we have to reclaim them. (Applause.)You see, this isn’t the first time America has faced this choice. At the turn of the last century, when a nationof farmers was transitioning to become the world’s industrial giant, we had to decide: Would we settle for acountry where most of the new railroads and factories were being controlled by a few giant monopolies thatkept prices high and wages low? Would we allow our citizens and even our children to work ungodly hoursin conditions that were unsafe and unsanitary? Would we restrict education to the privileged few? Becausethere were people who thought massive inequality and exploitation of people was just the price you pay forprogress.Theodore Roosevelt disagreed. He was the Republican son of a wealthy family. He praised what the titansof industry had done to create jobs and grow the economy. He believed then what we know is true today,that the free market is the greatest force for economic progress in human history. It’s led to a prosperity anda standard of living unmatched by the rest of the world.But Roosevelt also knew that the free market has never been a free license to take whatever you can fromwhomever you can. (Applause.) He understood the free market only works when there are rules of the roadthat ensure competition is fair and open and honest. And so he busted up monopolies, forcing thosecompanies to compete for consumers with better services and better prices. And today, they still must. Hefought to make sure businesses couldn’t profit by exploiting children or selling food or medicine that wasn’tsafe. And today, they still can’t.And in 1910, Teddy Roosevelt came here to Osawatomie and he laid out his vision for what he called a NewNationalism. “Our country,” he said, “…means nothing unless it means the triumph of a real democracy…ofan economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that thereis in him.” (Applause.)Now, for this, Roosevelt was called a radical. He was called a socialist -- (laughter) -- even a communist. Buttoday, we are a richer nation and a stronger democracy because of what he fought for in his last campaign:an eight-hour work day and a minimum wage for women -- (applause) -- insurance for the unemployed andfor the elderly, and those with disabilities; political reform and a progressive income tax. (Applause.)

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Today, over 100 years later, our economy has gone through another transformation. Over the last fewdecades, huge advances in technology have allowed businesses to do more with less, and it’s made iteasier for them to set up shop and hire workers anywhere they want in the world. And many of you knowfirsthand the painful disruptions this has caused for a lot of Americans.Factories where people thought they would retire suddenly picked up and went overseas, where workerswere cheaper. Steel mills that needed 100 -- or 1,000 employees are now able to do the same work with 100employees, so layoffs too often became permanent, not just a temporary part of the business cycle. Andthese changes didn’t just affect blue-collar workers. If you were a bank teller or a phone operator or a travelagent, you saw many in your profession replaced by ATMs and the Internet.Today, even higher-skilled jobs, like accountants and middle management can be outsourced to countrieslike China or India. And if you’re somebody whose job can be done cheaper by a computer or someone inanother country, you don’t have a lot of leverage with your employer when it comes to asking for betterwages or better benefits, especially since fewer Americans today are part of a union.Now, just as there was in Teddy Roosevelt’s time, there is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the lastfew decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. “The market willtake care of everything,” they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes -- especially for thewealthy -- our economy will grow stronger. Sure, they say, there will be winners and losers. But if thewinners do really well, then jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everybody else. And, theyargue, even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, well, that’s the price of liberty.Now, it’s a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and ourhealthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumpersticker. (Laughter.) But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. (Applause.) It didn’t workwhen it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible postwarbooms of the ‘50s and ‘60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade. (Applause.) I mean,understand, it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory.Remember in those years, in 2001 and 2003, Congress passed two of the most expensive tax cuts for thewealthy in history. And what did it get us? The slowest job growth in half a century. Massive deficits thathave made it much harder to pay for the investments that built this country and provided the basic securitythat helped millions of Americans reach and stay in the middle class -- things like education andinfrastructure, science and technology, Medicare and Social Security.Remember that in those same years, thanks to some of the same folks who are now running Congress, wehad weak regulation, we had little oversight, and what did it get us? Insurance companies that jacked uppeople’s premiums with impunity and denied care to patients who were sick, mortgage lenders that trickedfamilies into buying homes they couldn’t afford, a financial sector where irresponsibility and lack of basicoversight nearly destroyed our entire economy.We simply cannot return to this brand of “you’re on your own” economics if we’re serious about rebuildingthe middle class in this country. (Applause.) We know that it doesn’t result in a strong economy. It results inan economy that invests too little in its people and in its future. We know it doesn’t result in a prosperity thattrickles down. It results in a prosperity that’s enjoyed by fewer and fewer of our citizens.Look at the statistics. In the last few decades, the average income of the top 1 percent has gone up by morethan 250 percent to $1.2 million per year. I’m not talking about millionaires, people who have a milliondollars. I’m saying people who make a million dollars every single year. For the top one hundredth of 1percent, the average income is now $27 million per year. The typical CEO who used to earn about 30 timesmore than his or her worker now earns 110 times more. And yet, over the last decade the incomes of mostAmericans have actually fallen by about 6 percent.Now, this kind of inequality -- a level that we haven’t seen since the Great Depression -- hurts us all. Whenmiddle-class families can no longer afford to buy the goods and services that businesses are selling, whenpeople are slipping out of the middle class, it drags down the entire economy from top to bottom. Americawas built on the idea of broad-based prosperity, of strong consumers all across the country. That’s why a

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CEO like Henry Ford made it his mission to pay his workers enough so that they could buy the cars hemade. It’s also why a recent study showed that countries with less inequality tend to have stronger andsteadier economic growth over the long run.Inequality also distorts our democracy. It gives an outsized voice to the few who can afford high-pricedlobbyists and unlimited campaign contributions, and it runs the risk of selling out our democracy to thehighest bidder. (Applause.) It leaves everyone else rightly suspicious that the system in Washington isrigged against them, that our elected representatives aren’t looking out for the interests of most Americans.But there’s an even more fundamental issue at stake. This kind of gaping inequality gives lie to the promisethat’s at the very heart of America: that this is a place where you can make it if you try. We tell people -- wetell our kids -- that in this country, even if you’re born with nothing, work hard and you can get into the middleclass. We tell them that your children will have a chance to do even better than you do. That’s whyimmigrants from around the world historically have flocked to our shores.And yet, over the last few decades, the rungs on the ladder of opportunity have grown farther and fartherapart, and the middle class has shrunk. You know, a few years after World War II, a child who was born intopoverty had a slightly better than 50-50 chance of becoming middle class as an adult. By 1980, that chancehad fallen to around 40 percent. And if the trend of rising inequality over the last few decades continues, it’sestimated that a child born today will only have a one-in-three chance of making it to the middle class -- 33percent.It’s heartbreaking enough that there are millions of working families in this country who are now forced totake their children to food banks for a decent meal. But the idea that those children might not have a chanceto climb out of that situation and back into the middle class, no matter how hard they work? That’sinexcusable. It is wrong. (Applause.) It flies in the face of everything that we stand for. (Applause.)Now, fortunately, that’s not a future that we have to accept, because there’s another view about how webuild a strong middle class in this country -- a view that’s truer to our history, a vision that’s been embracedin the past by people of both parties for more than 200 years.It’s not a view that we should somehow turn back technology or put up walls around America. It’s not a viewthat says we should punish profit or success or pretend that government knows how to fix all of society’sproblems. It is a view that says in America we are greater together -- when everyone engages in fair playand everybody gets a fair shot and everybody does their fair share. (Applause.)So what does that mean for restoring middle-class security in today’s economy? Well, it starts by makingsure that everyone in America gets a fair shot at success. The truth is we’ll never be able to compete withother countries when it comes to who’s best at letting their businesses pay the lowest wages, who’s best atbusting unions, who’s best at letting companies pollute as much as they want. That’s a race to the bottomthat we can’t win, and we shouldn’t want to win that race. (Applause.) Those countries don’t have a strongmiddle class. They don’t have our standard of living.The race we want to win, the race we can win is a race to the top -- the race for good jobs that pay well andoffer middle-class security. Businesses will create those jobs in countries with the highest-skilled, highest-educated workers, the most advanced transportation and communication, the strongest commitment toresearch and technology.The world is shifting to an innovation economy and nobody does innovation better than America. Nobodydoes it better. (Applause.) No one has better colleges. Nobody has better universities. Nobody has a greaterdiversity of talent and ingenuity. No one’s workers or entrepreneurs are more driven or more daring. Thethings that have always been our strengths match up perfectly with the demands of the moment.But we need to meet the moment. We’ve got to up our game. We need to remember that we can only dothat together. It starts by making education a national mission -- a national mission. (Applause.) Governmentand businesses, parents and citizens. In this economy, a higher education is the surest route to the middleclass. The unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is about half the nationalaverage. And their incomes are twice as high as those who don’t have a high school diploma. Which meanswe shouldn’t be laying off good teachers right now -- we should be hiring them. (Applause.) We shouldn’t beexpecting less of our schools –- we should be demanding more. (Applause.) We shouldn’t be making it

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harder to afford college -- we should be a country where everyone has a chance to go and doesn’t rack up$100,000 of debt just because they went. (Applause.)In today’s innovation economy, we also need a world-class commitment to science and research, the nextgeneration of high-tech manufacturing. Our factories and our workers shouldn’t be idle. We should be givingpeople the chance to get new skills and training at community colleges so they can learn how to make windturbines and semiconductors and high-powered batteries. And by the way, if we don’t have an economythat’s built on bubbles and financial speculation, our best and brightest won’t all gravitate towards careers inbanking and finance. (Applause.) Because if we want an economy that’s built to last, we need more of thoseyoung people in science and engineering. (Applause.) This country should not be known for bad debt andphony profits. We should be known for creating and selling products all around the world that are stampedwith three proud words: Made in America. (Applause.)Today, manufacturers and other companies are setting up shop in the places with the best infrastructure toship their products, move their workers, communicate with the rest of the world. And that’s why the over 1million construction workers who lost their jobs when the housing market collapsed, they shouldn’t be sittingat home with nothing to do. They should be rebuilding our roads and our bridges, laying down fasterrailroads and broadband, modernizing our schools -- (applause) -- all the things other countries are alreadydoing to attract good jobs and businesses to their shores.Yes, business, and not government, will always be the primary generator of good jobs with incomes that liftpeople into the middle class and keep them there. But as a nation, we’ve always come together, through ourgovernment, to help create the conditions where both workers and businesses can succeed. (Applause.)And historically, that hasn’t been a partisan idea. Franklin Roosevelt worked with Democrats andRepublicans to give veterans of World War II -- including my grandfather, Stanley Dunham -- the chance togo to college on the G.I. Bill. It was a Republican President, Dwight Eisenhower, a proud son of Kansas --(applause) -- who started the Interstate Highway System, and doubled down on science and research tostay ahead of the Soviets.Of course, those productive investments cost money. They’re not free. And so we’ve also paid for theseinvestments by asking everybody to do their fair share. Look, if we had unlimited resources, no one wouldever have to pay any taxes and we would never have to cut any spending. But we don’t have unlimitedresources. And so we have to set priorities. If we want a strong middle class, then our tax code must reflectour values. We have to make choices.Today that choice is very clear. To reduce our deficit, I’ve already signed nearly $1 trillion of spending cutsinto law and I’ve proposed trillions more, including reforms that would lower the cost of Medicare andMedicaid. (Applause.)But in order to structurally close the deficit, get our fiscal house in order, we have to decide what ourpriorities are. Now, most immediately, short term, we need to extend a payroll tax cut that’s set to expire atthe end of this month. (Applause.) If we don’t do that, 160 million Americans, including most of the peoplehere, will see their taxes go up by an average of $1,000 starting in January and it would badly weaken ourrecovery. That’s the short term.In the long term, we have to rethink our tax system more fundamentally. We have to ask ourselves: Do wewant to make the investments we need in things like education and research and high-tech manufacturing --all those things that helped make us an economic superpower? Or do we want to keep in place the taxbreaks for the wealthiest Americans in our country? Because we can’t afford to do both. That is not politics.That’s just math. (Laughter and applause.)Now, so far, most of my Republican friends in Washington have refused under any circumstance to ask thewealthiest Americans to go to the same tax rate they were paying when Bill Clinton was president. So let’sjust do a trip down memory lane here.Keep in mind, when President Clinton first proposed these tax increases, folks in Congress predicted theywould kill jobs and lead to another recession. Instead, our economy created nearly 23 million jobs and weeliminated the deficit. (Applause.) Today, the wealthiest Americans are paying the lowest taxes in over half a

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century. This isn’t like in the early ‘50s, when the top tax rate was over 90 percent. This isn’t even like theearly ‘80s, when the top tax rate was about 70 percent. Under President Clinton, the top rate was only about39 percent. Today, thanks to loopholes and shelters, a quarter of all millionaires now pay lower tax ratesthan millions of you, millions of middle-class families. Some billionaires have a tax rate as low as 1 percent.One percent.That is the height of unfairness. It is wrong. (Applause.) It’s wrong that in the United States of America, ateacher or a nurse or a construction worker, maybe earns $50,000 a year, should pay a higher tax rate thansomebody raking in $50 million. (Applause.) It’s wrong for Warren Buffett’s secretary to pay a higher tax ratethan Warren Buffett. (Applause.) And by the way, Warren Buffett agrees with me. (Laughter.) So do mostAmericans -- Democrats, independents and Republicans. And I know that many of our wealthiest citizenswould agree to contribute a little more if it meant reducing the deficit and strengthening the economy thatmade their success possible.This isn’t about class warfare. This is about the nation’s welfare. It’s about making choices that benefit notjust the people who’ve done fantastically well over the last few decades, but that benefits the middle class,and those fighting to get into the middle class, and the economy as a whole.Finally, a strong middle class can only exist in an economy where everyone plays by the same rules, fromWall Street to Main Street. (Applause.) As infuriating as it was for all of us, we rescued our major banks fromcollapse, not only because a full-blown financial meltdown would have sent us into a second Depression, butbecause we need a strong, healthy financial sector in this country.But part of the deal was that we wouldn’t go back to business as usual. And that’s why last year we put inplace new rules of the road that refocus the financial sector on what should be their core purpose: gettingcapital to the entrepreneurs with the best ideas, and financing millions of families who want to buy a home orsend their kids to college.Now, we’re not all the way there yet, and the banks are fighting us every inch of the way. But already, someof these reforms are being implemented.If you’re a big bank or risky financial institution, you now have to write out a “living will” that details exactlyhow you’ll pay the bills if you fail, so that taxpayers are never again on the hook for Wall Street’s mistakes.(Applause.) There are also limits on the size of banks and new abilities for regulators to dismantle a firm thatis going under. The new law bans banks from making risky bets with their customers’ deposits, and it takesaway big bonuses and paydays from failed CEOs, while giving shareholders a say on executive salaries.This is the law that we passed. We are in the process of implementing it now. All of this is being put in placeas we speak. Now, unless you’re a financial institution whose business model is built on breaking the law,cheating consumers and making risky bets that could damage the entire economy, you should have nothingto fear from these new rules.Some of you may know, my grandmother worked as a banker for most of her life -- worked her way up,started as a secretary, ended up being a vice president of a bank. And I know from her, and I know from allthe people that I’ve come in contact with, that the vast majority of bankers and financial serviceprofessionals, they want to do right by their customers. They want to have rules in place that don’t put themat a disadvantage for doing the right thing. And yet, Republicans in Congress are fighting as hard as theycan to make sure that these rules aren’t enforced.I’ll give you a specific example. For the first time in history, the reforms that we passed put in place aconsumer watchdog who is charged with protecting everyday Americans from being taken advantage of bymortgage lenders or payday lenders or debt collectors. And the man we nominated for the post, RichardCordray, is a former attorney general of Ohio who has the support of most attorney generals, both Democratand Republican, throughout the country. Nobody claims he’s not qualified.But the Republicans in the Senate refuse to confirm him for the job; they refuse to let him do his job. Why?Does anybody here think that the problem that led to our financial crisis was too much oversight of mortgagelenders or debt collectors?

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AUDIENCE: No!THE PRESIDENT: Of course not. Every day we go without a consumer watchdog is another day when astudent, or a senior citizen, or a member of our Armed Forces -- because they are very vulnerable to someof this stuff -- could be tricked into a loan that they can’t afford -- something that happens all the time. Andthe fact is that financial institutions have plenty of lobbyists looking out for their interests. Consumersdeserve to have someone whose job it is to look out for them. (Applause.) And I intend to make sure theydo. (Applause.) And I want you to hear me, Kansas: I will veto any effort to delay or defund or dismantle thenew rules that we put in place. (Applause.)We shouldn’t be weakening oversight and accountability. We should be strengthening oversight andaccountability. I’ll give you another example. Too often, we’ve seen Wall Street firms violating major anti-fraud laws because the penalties are too weak and there’s no price for being a repeat offender. No more. I’llbe calling for legislation that makes those penalties count so that firms don’t see punishment for breakingthe law as just the price of doing business. (Applause.)The fact is this crisis has left a huge deficit of trust between Main Street and Wall Street. And major banksthat were rescued by the taxpayers have an obligation to go the extra mile in helping to close that deficit oftrust. At minimum, they should be remedying past mortgage abuses that led to the financial crisis. Theyshould be working to keep responsible homeowners in their home. We’re going to keep pushing them toprovide more time for unemployed homeowners to look for work without having to worry about immediatelylosing their house.The big banks should increase access to refinancing opportunities to borrowers who haven’t yet benefitedfrom historically low interest rates. And the big banks should recognize that precisely because these stepsare in the interest of middle-class families and the broader economy, it will also be in the banks’ own long-term financial interest. What will be good for consumers over the long term will be good for the banks.(Applause.)Investing in things like education that give everybody a chance to succeed. A tax code that makes sureeverybody pays their fair share. And laws that make sure everybody follows the rules. That’s what willtransform our economy. That’s what will grow our middle class again. In the end, rebuilding this economybased on fair play, a fair shot, and a fair share will require all of us to see that we have a stake in eachother’s success. And it will require all of us to take some responsibility.It will require parents to get more involved in their children’s education. It will require students to studyharder. (Applause.) It will require some workers to start studying all over again. It will require greaterresponsibility from homeowners not to take out mortgages they can’t afford. They need to remember that ifsomething seems too good to be true, it probably is.It will require those of us in public service to make government more efficient and more effective, moreconsumer-friendly, more responsive to people’s needs. That’s why we’re cutting programs that we don’tneed to pay for those we do. (Applause.) That’s why we’ve made hundreds of regulatory reforms that willsave businesses billions of dollars. That’s why we’re not just throwing money at education, we’re challengingschools to come up with the most innovative reforms and the best results.And it will require American business leaders to understand that their obligations don’t just end with theirshareholders. Andy Grove, the legendary former CEO of Intel, put it best. He said, “There is anotherobligation I feel personally, given that everything I’ve achieved in my career, and a lot of what Intel hasachieved…were made possible by a climate of democracy, an economic climate and investment climateprovided by the United States.”This broader obligation can take many forms. At a time when the cost of hiring workers in China is risingrapidly, it should mean more CEOs deciding that it’s time to bring jobs back to the United States --(applause) -- not just because it’s good for business, but because it’s good for the country that made theirbusiness and their personal success possible. (Applause.)

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I think about the Big Three auto companies who, during recent negotiations, agreed to create more jobs andcars here in America, and then decided to give bonuses not just to their executives, but to all theiremployees, so that everyone was invested in the company’s success. (Applause.)I think about a company based in Warroad, Minnesota. It’s called Marvin Windows and Doors. During therecession, Marvin’s competitors closed dozens of plants, let hundreds of workers go. But Marvin’s did not layoff a single one of their 4,000 or so employees -- not one. In fact, they’ve only laid off workers once in over ahundred years. Mr. Marvin’s grandfather even kept his eight employees during the Great Depression.Now, at Marvin’s when times get tough, the workers agree to give up some perks and some pay, and so dothe owners. As one owner said, “You can’t grow if you’re cutting your lifeblood -- and that’s the skills andexperience your workforce delivers.” (Applause.) For the CEO of Marvin’s, it’s about the community. Hesaid, “These are people we went to school with. We go to church with them. We see them in the samerestaurants. Indeed, a lot of us have married local girls and boys. We could be anywhere, but we are inWarroad.”That’s how America was built. That’s why we’re the greatest nation on Earth. That’s what our greatestcompanies understand. Our success has never just been about survival of the fittest. It’s about building anation where we’re all better off. We pull together. We pitch in. We do our part. We believe that hard workwill pay off, that responsibility will be rewarded, and that our children will inherit a nation where those valueslive on. (Applause.)And it is that belief that rallied thousands of Americans to Osawatomie -- (applause) -- maybe even some ofyour ancestors -- on a rain-soaked day more than a century ago. By train, by wagon, on buggy, bicycle, onfoot, they came to hear the vision of a man who loved this country and was determined to perfect it.“We are all Americans,” Teddy Roosevelt told them that day. “Our common interests are as broad as thecontinent.” In the final years of his life, Roosevelt took that same message all across this country, from tinyOsawatomie to the heart of New York City, believing that no matter where he went, no matter who he wastalking to, everybody would benefit from a country in which everyone gets a fair chance. (Applause.)And well into our third century as a nation, we have grown and we’ve changed in many ways sinceRoosevelt’s time. The world is faster and the playing field is larger and the challenges are more complex.But what hasn’t changed -- what can never change -- are the values that got us this far. We still have a stakein each other’s success. We still believe that this should be a place where you can make it if you try. And westill believe, in the words of the man who called for a New Nationalism all those years ago, “The fundamentalrule of our national life,” he said, “the rule which underlies all others -- is that, on the whole, and in the longrun, we shall go up or down together.” And I believe America is on the way up. (Applause.)Thank you. God bless you. God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)END1:55 P.M. CST